Saxophone Summit is Back!

Audiences will have the opportunity to listen to a live performance by 1990s legendary jazz group the Saxophone Summit at the Cemal Reşit Rey (CRR) Concert Hall, which opened its new season in October with Kenny Barron.

According to a press release from CRR, the next scheduled performance they will host is no less amazing than the Barron concert, with the Saxophone Summit coming back to İstanbul seven years after their last gig in this city. Group members Joe Lovano, David Liebman and Ravi Coltrane will amaze their audience in a special evening performance. All three are legends who are considered to have reached mastery of the saxophone.

The group’s first Turkish appearance also took place at CRR back in 2003 during that year’s Akbank Jazz Festival. The trio was then formed by Lovano, Liebman and the late Michael Brecker.

Lovano, Brecker and Liebman came together in a jam session in Tokyo in 1997, which was a great success at the time. The trio got offers from world-renowned festivals around the globe after the Tokyo concert, which was incidentally, held on the day of the death of jazz legend John Coltrane. It was also on the day when the three saxophone virtuosos from diverse backgrounds decided to found the Saxophone Summit for the group’s essential purpose — perpetuating Coltrane’s legacy.

It wasn’t easy bringing these three masters together; as Liebmen puts it, “Bringing together the three different personalities needed Coltrane to make it happen.”